June 8: Obadiah

(Posted on behalf of Jon Lanuza)

SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Obadiah

The wages of sin, the thoroughness of the consequences. And what was Edom's sin?  Its treatment of Israel merely seems to be the act that manifested the sins, of which there were two.  

 

The first sin was pride - "The pride of your heart has deceived you"...a pride borne of Edom's achievements, living in the clefts of the rock and on the heights.  One simple way to think of pride is the belief in one's self-sufficiency.  And when one thinks they are self sufficient, what room is there for God?  What room is there to acknowledge His existence, to get to know Him, and grow to love Him as He asks?

 

The second sin appears to be self centeredness, reflected in an indifference towards others.  Edom "stood aloof while strangers carried off [Israel's] wealth".  Worse, Edom took advantage of Israel's calamity...not having caused the calamity, perhaps, Edom saw nothing wrong with enriching itself  "in the day of their disaster", seizing their wealth, cutting down their fugitives and handing over their survivors.

 

One is reminded of an incident, years later, in Luke 10, when an expert in the law came to ask Jesus a question: 

 

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind"; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

 

Sin is not defined by the consequences of one's actions, nor how adverse those consequences may seem, but by what is in one's heart when one acts.  Trying to control our actions, then, would be almost as productive as trying to control a golf ball's trajectory after it has been struck.  The challenge, the opportunity, is to strike the ball properly so it flies in the right direction - in the same way, our challenge, our opportunity would seem to be to put our hearts in the right place.  When we love God above all, and our neighbors as ourselves, we may be blessed as to avoid the sins of Edom, and see the golf ball of our lives leave the tee to fly straight and true onto the fairway.

 

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